Confirmation link that will change value of cell in Google Sheet

Question

I want to send a confirmation email to managers based on row data in google sheets. Manager should approve the email by clicking on a link/button in email. This link/button should change the appropriate cell in my Gsheet. (I have a column "manager_approved" that is set to false by default, after clicking the link in email, it should change the corresponding cell in this column to true.)

So far I haven't found a way how to create such a link/button. Managers don't have access to this GSheet.

I will be very grateful full for every advice. I'm new to JS and GS so I'm not even sure if this is even possible.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, creating a button is not possible through Gmail API unless you created your web app using Gmail Add-On service. I can provide a sample code which sends emails based on cell value on Google Sheet.

NOTE: This is a sample code ONLY for Google Sheets/Mail Service.

To further understand this code, you can read through this documentation for Sheets Service.

Sample code:

function sendConfirmationEmail(e) {

var managers = ['Manager 1', 'Manager 2', 'Manager 3', 'Manager 4']; //list of manager names for the dropdown
var emailAdd = ['manager1@gmail.com', 'manager2@gmail.com', 'manager3@gmail.com','manager4@gmail.com'];

var source = e.source; 
var sheet = source.getActiveSheet();
var sheetName = sheet.getSheetName();

var range = e.range;
var col = range.getColumn();

var value = e.value;

if (sheetName == 'Sheet1' && col == 3) { //col3 being a dropdown menu list of all manager names
  index = managers.indexOf(value);
  if (index > -1){
    MailApp.sendEmail(emailAdd[index],'Email Confirmation','Confirm this email by clicking here'
    )
  }
}

} 

But, this needs further modification if you would need to add an imageButton using CardService by setting a setOnClickAction(action) . Furthermore than that, I suggest reading through the following documentation.

Documentations:

https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/card-service/image-button
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/card-service/card-service
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/add-ons/cats-quickstart

Answer 2

You can create a google form with email and accept/reject options , then give the link in an email to managers and ask them to respond via the form. The Google spreadsheet automatically retrieves the answer. Finally, within a formula you can retrieve the answer in any formula.